Asymmetry

Here’s an asymmetrically composed photograph of an asymmetric sunflower. I hope you’ll take this double negative, along with the combination of bright yellow and blue, as a positive. As I’ve said many times, there’s nothing common about the “common” sunflower, Helianthus annuus.

I took this photograph on July 20 on the east bank of Waller Creek along Chesterfield Ave. in north-central Austin. Sunflowers typically reach their peak in my part of the world in June, but scattered plants continue to flower through the summer and early fall (and occasionally even late fall, as I reported last December 7).

Hands down I think sunflowers win for favorite flower. I mean Van Gogh liked them enough to paint lots of paintings of them. I think you cannot look at a sunflower without smiling a little. They are so cheerfully happy. Even when they are dead and in seed they seem to want to share (seeds usually for birds). Great photo. Thank you for such a wonderful Friday photo!

You’re welcome to this friendly floral Friday (though almost every day on this blog features wildflowers). Last year I showed more pictures of sunflowers than of any other species. I never get tired of photographing them, including parts of the plant other than the flowers.

[…] along the east bank of Waller Creek adjacent to Chesterfield Ave. in north-central Austin, I found the asymmetric sunflower that you saw last time. I also found, I’ll add now, not a partridge in a pear tree, but a […]

The seed of one of these scattered itself into a cactus pot on my balcony. I finally figured out it was a sunflower and let it be. It grew to about 4′, and I’m sure it was Helianthus annuus. I even took its photo, and one day it will star in a little post titled “The Accidental Garden”. Lazy gardeners everywhere will rejoice.

Field guides commonly point out that sunflowers like to colonize “disturbed ground.” I’ve certainly seen that on land that has been cleared but then sits idle for a while until construction starts on roads or buildings. Perhaps the soil in your cactus pot qualifies as “disturbed ground.” In any case, I look forward to the flourishing of “The Accidental Garden.”

[…] Monarda citriodora. Next most numerous are firewheels, Gaillardia pulchella. There are also a few sunflower plants, Helianthus annuus, and at the left edge the narrower leaves of some Maximilian sunflowers, […]